Loss of life and property occur in a natural disaster when the fabric of a dwelling in which humans are sheltered fails when subjected to the extraordinary forces of an uncommonly occurring event of nature. Until now, attempts to bolster the robustness of the standard wood stick framed house have been inadequate, as the dollar value of construction lost in the last decade, to severe storms, shows.
It is well known that high speed wind can do great damage to residential and commercial building structures, particularly in areas prone to hurricanes and other high wind storms. Each year hurricanes cause a considerable amount of damage to buildings, resulting in increased insurance rates. For this reason several states have enacted new building codes designed to insure that new structures are resistant to hurricane speed winds. For example, the state of Florida recently enacted a new building code which requires all new buildings to comply with standards by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Southern Building Code.
In the United States, wood structures have been predominant in constructing houses of every size. Such structures may be utilized in residential and light commercial construction. When wood framing is employed, the structure must be protected from upward, shear and overturning loads developed by either wind or seismic activity which differs with geographical location. Other than such natural forces, the wood framed structures should also be resistant to other weather conditions such as, water, temperature, snow, and the like. Such wood structures may need a resistant coating. Each year hurricanes and high speed winds cause considerable destruction to wood framed buildings, and greatly devalue the money invested in constructing these buildings. For these reasons, many design codes for buildings have been introduced to insure new building structures are resistant to powerful natural forces. However, building houses or other structures by implementing such codes and techniques is a costly affair.
It is a scientific fact that the severity of natural processes; storms, winds, tsunamis and other natural phenomenon; are going to increase in severity in the coming decades due to climate change. The present state of the building stock in the United States, particularly single family housing, is woefully unprepared for this coming increase in storms. A study concentrating on a strip of land ten miles wide; extending back from the mean high water line, running from Maine to Mexico, following the coast of the Continental US; reports that in that small band alone there are 1.4 trillion dollars worth of buildings at risk.
Therefore, there exists a need to provide a unique building structure and housing assembly that can withstand extremely powerful natural forces and weather conditions capable of damaging the housing structures, and a method to build that assembly. Further, there also exists a need to produce and erect this building structure and housing assembly at a competitive price.